


The Return of Papa Reyes

by wilddragonflying



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Dad Reaper | Gabriel Reyes, Escape, M/M, McCree gets captured, Reaper is working the Inside Angle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-19 22:16:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14246874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wilddragonflying/pseuds/wilddragonflying
Summary: Jesse McCree gets himself captured and destroys all of Reaper's well-laid plans in one fell swoop.





	1. Chapter 1

Gabriel glares across the room at Sombra. “Really?” he growls. “You couldn’t just tell me whatever it is, you had to _send me a text?_ ”

Sombra sticks her tongue out at him, and he can’t stop the memory of another young agent doing the same thing(he can never stop those memories, and wouldn’t even if he could). “Just read it, _abuelo_.”

Gabriel rolls his eyes, grumbles under his breath, and does. There’s a picture attached to three words, and it takes every bit of experience Gabriel possesses to not visibly react. 

_They caught him._

The picture is of a man, older than when Gabriel knew him, but that damn serape - it’s still the same. Wrapped around shoulders that have broadened over the years, Gabriel’s pretty sure it’s the exact same one that McCree came home from a visit to his mother with. It was the start of his new look, and it looks like he’s still just as dedicated to it as ever. McCree, in the photo, is in the middle of being dragged into a cell - one Gabriel realizes he recognizes, one in this very building - and from the snarl on his face and the blood dripping from one temple, smeared into his hair and across his cheek, he’s not going quietly. 

Gabriel Reyes has been plotting the downfall of Talon since they fished him out of the rubble they created five years ago, but all of those plans get thrown out the window before he even consciously realizes he’s changed them.

Gabriel starts plotting a new course of action immediately.

* * *

McCree’s spent the last few hours shouting himself hoarse at the guards standing outside of his cell, but they’ve probably muted their damn helmets, since none of them reacted after the first fifteen minutes. He’s finally sunken onto the single piece of furniture in the cell - an unforgiving piece of metal that passes for a cot - and has started trying to plot. He needs to get out of here; who knows what Talon has planned for him, but they were clearly after _someone_ from the new Overwatch, with the number of agents that had been on that mission. He’d been just a little too far away, just out of sight of the rendezvous point before he’d finally been overwhelmed by sheer numbers. He hadn’t made it easy for them to take him; several more agents had been dead by the time they reached the Talon transport, but he hadn’t been able to fight his way free. They’d sedated him before the transport took off, and he hadn’t woken up until they landed, when he’d been hustled off the ship and into an unassuming office building, through a back door and down, down, down into the cell he was currently in. He’d memorized the path they’d brought him down, as well as the arrogant lack of security measures, but unless he could find a way out of this biometrically locked cell, he was shit out of luck.

McCree hears the shuffle of footprints from overhead before the Talon agents do; for a split-second, he thinks that Genji’s in the vents again, but then he remembers he’s in a _Talon_ base, and who the fuck would - 

Reaper would, apparently.

He drops from the ceiling vent, smoke already billowing from under his coat as he snarls the line that’s raised the hair on the back of Jesse’s neck more than once on the battlefield. Jesse reaches instinctively for Peacekeeper - confiscated and stored somewhere else, damn it - as he rolls out of the way, but - Reaper isn’t aiming for him. It’s the Talon agents he wants, apparently, because they drop like flies with little more than a few shouts of surprise. Jesse watches, confused but most of all wary, as Reaper inspects the bodies, making sure they’re all dead - the way he moves tickling something at the back of Jesse’s mind - before he approaches Jesse’s cell door, pressing a thumb to the scanner and unlocking the door. 

”What the hell are you doing here?” Jesse demands, suspicious as all get-out; why the fuck is _Reaper_ opening the cell door?

”Getting you out, what does it look like?” is the growled answer, but Jesse plants his feet. 

”Why, you gonna shoot me out back like a lame horse?” Jesse retorts. “No, thanks. I’m not going anywhere with you, _Reaper._

That earns him another growl, and Reaper’s hand moves - but not towards his shotguns, holstered at his hips. It moves to the mask, unlatching it to reveal a face Jesse hasn’t seen anywhere but dreams and memories for years. “Get your ass moving, kid,” Gabriel Reyes orders. “Unless you want Talon to start turning you into me.”

He turns, then, striding for a locked door; he unlocks this one, too, disappearing into it for a moment. By the time Jesse’s gotten his feet working again, Reyes has returned with all of Jesse’s confiscated gear. He drops it unceremoniously in Jesse’s arms, his own folding across his chest as he waits for Jesse to arm himself. “What the _fuck,_ ” is all Jesse can coherently get out of his mouth at the moment; there’s what might a twitch of the lips on Reyes’s expression before it smooths out again.

”Save your questions until we’re clear,” he orders. “You got a comm to Overwatch?”

”Yeah, but - “

”Turn it on. Let that AI of the gorilla’s track you. Make sure it gets the location of this base, it’ll at least give your team a starting point after Talon clears out.” Reyes turns, clearly expecting Jesse to follow; Jesse, for lack of any better option, does.

He followed Reyes for almost a decade, and habits that old die hard.

* * *

If they had been able to simply walk onto a tarmac and take a transport, Jesse would have been suspicious, but as it is he’s got smoke in his lungs from Reaper’s Death Blossom, and his eye is stinging from having to use Deadeye more than once in such a short amount of time.

Reyes pilots them out of the Talon base, setting a course designed to shake any pursuit into the autopilot before he turns to Jesse again. “Spit your questions out, I can see them getting ready to spill out your ears.”

All the questions tumbling through his mind boil down to one: “ _Why?_ ”

Reyes rolls his eyes, a put-upon sigh escaping like he hadn’t expected anything less. “Talon did a lot of things. Things I never realized were happening until it was too late,” he says after a moment. “I was planning to make them pay, had been working towards since I woke up after Switzerland. Then you had to get your fool ass captured and throw them all out the window.”

Jesse frowns. “Why does that matter to you? You fucking disappeared, let everyone think you were dead!” he spits. “And _Reaper_ has always been Talon’s favorite mercenary.”

Reyes’s lip curls. “I had to be effective, to get them to let me in more than any other mercenary they hired,” he growls. “Yeah, right after the explosion, I was pissed. I was mad, I was hurting - and I took it out on anyone who got in front of my guns. But after that, I only did what I needed to do to get the job done. Couldn’t contact anyone from my old life if I wanted this plan to work. And I watched after your scrawny ass for almost ten years, boy. You were my goddamn son, you think that even after five solid years of not listening to your boasting and stupid accent I’d let Talon experiment on you? Let them torture you, turn you into one of them? Fuck no. I just blew _years_ of planning getting you out of there.”

Silence reigns in the cabin for several long moments, the two of them staring at each other, too many emotions to process or even name clogging the air between them. Eventually, Jesse breaks the silence. “So what now?”

Gabriel takes a deep breath, the smoke at the edges of his hood slowing, curling more delicately now. “Well. The best case scenario would be that Overwatch accepts Reaper’s surrender and offer of inside information in exchange for his life. But I’m not suffering under any delusions about that happening.”

Jesse mulls it over for a moment. “It might. If I radio it in, explain what happened. They’re not going to let us fly right to the base, though.”

Reyes watches him for a moment; with the way the light hits his face, Jesse can almost pretend his eyes are that same deep brown they were before. Reyes gives a nod, short and sharp. “Do it.”

Jesse watches him head back for the pilot’s seat, and after taking a couple of deep breaths - and pinching himself a few times - he pulls out his communicator.

He connects with Athena first. “Agent McCree, a pleasure to see you’re still alive,” the AI says. “Are you in need of rescuing?”

”Actually, Athena, that’s already taken care of. I have a message for Winston, though. Tell him that the old timers need to hear it first, before anyone else, though.”

”Of course, McCree. What is the message?”

Jesse takes a deep breath. “Gabriel Reyes is Reaper, and he just saved my ass.”

* * *

In the hours it takes to reach the eventually-agreed-upon rendezvous point, Jesse has had to explain what happened several times over, and even Reyes had eventually shouted something back from the pilot’s chair when Winston, Ana, Soldier:76, and Angela had all been caught up arguing about how to handle the situation. The sound of his unmistakable voice had shut them all up good and quick, and after that it had been easy for Jesse to finally get a word in edgewise. They’d hashed out a plan, Ana threatening that if Reaper were lying, and if he laid so much as a _finger_ on Jesse, she’d turn him into less than smoke. Reyes had laughed, quietly, at that, and said something in Arabic that earned a furious reply from Ana before the call ended.

Now, as Reyes lands the transport at the edge of the clearing they’d agreed to meet in, the nerves and doubt come back. What if this is all a ploy? Talon hasn’t exactly been above sacrificing their own men before, what if they let Reaper bust Jesse out so that they could capture some higher-ranking Overwatch members?

”I can see the wheels turning, _mijo,_ ” Reyes grunts from where he’s standing, scanning the treeline for Overwatch’s own transport. “This isn’t a trap. The only person who helped me is Sombra.”

”The hacker? Why’d she help you?”

”She’s got her own history with Talon, and her own agenda. I never asked, she never offered. But she gave me the building blueprints while I was gearing up to get you, told me to have fun.”

Jesse snorts. “You’ve got a habit of collecting dangerous young people,” he observes. “Even now.”

Reyes shrugs, glancing at Jesse before returning to his watch. “It’s always been a specialty of mine, attracting strays. Never had the heart to kick them out.”

* * *

It’s another quiet hour before they hear the hum of the Orca’s engines; Gabriel watches the way Jesse stands, quivering like a bowstring in anxiety next to him, at his right hand just like Blackwatch. He appreciates it, though he’s careful to keep his distance. He isn’t entirely convinced that the new Overwatch agents won’t just shoot first and ask questions later, and he’d rather Jesse not get caught in any possible friendly fire. 

The Orca docks, and the old Watch disembarks. _Smart,_ Reyes thinks. They’ve all fought with him, and more recently, against Reaper. Lena’s glowing at the edges, a sure sign even now of stress, and Winston’s watching him with a dangerous look in his eyes. Jack - _Soldier:76,_ he goes by now, but Reyes lost his humanity, not his memory, and the visor can't hide that jawline that Reyes _definitely_ remembers biting - is next to Winston at the front, Ana on his other side, and Angela, Torbjörn, and Reinhardt are hanging back with Lena. They’re all kitted out like they’re embarking on a full-out assault, and Reyes follows slightly behind Jesse as the sharpshooter moves, both groups meeting in the middle of the clearing.

”Reaper,” Winston says, eyes narrowed.

”Reyes,” he corrects. “I’m… considering retiring the Reaper persona.”

”Under what conditions?” Jack asks sharply; he still carries himself like the Strike Commander he once was, but his shoulders aren’t quite as straight now, bowed under the burden of years of hindsight.

”Well, I told McCree I thought the best case scenario would be you accepting my surrender and the inside information I have on Talon in exchange for my life. But, I’ve still got a score to settle with Talon. My old plan’s gone up in flames now, so I need a new one.”

Ana, still sharp even missing an eye, is the first to pick up on his intent. “You want to fight with us.”

Reyes shrugs, even as Angela, Winston, Torbjörn, and Reinhardt protest. “I realize that’s a long shot. But you were always especially good at those.”

Ana snorts, but she studies him intently for a long moment. He resists the urge to fidget, meeting her gaze evenly and openly; he’s got nothing left to hide from these people, now. The cat’s well and truly out of the bag. Eventually, she nods. “For now, we accept your surrender,” she says. “Anything else can be discussed after we determine how useful your information is.”

Jack looks like he’s considering arguing, but in the end, all he does is step forward and hold out a device. “It’ll keep you from smoking out on us,” he grunts. “Winston developed it after your last attack.”

It’s a modified pair of handcuffs, and Gabriel doesn’t hesitate to hold his hands out; he winces slightly when they lock, Jack clicking them shut just a bit too tight, but he doesn’t complain, just follows Jack and Ana onto the transport, Angela already fussing over Jesse. 

It’s almost like old times.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> La la la la la la canon Moira introduction? What canon Moira introduction?
> 
> Also edited the years; for some reason I was thinking there was twenty years between the end of overwatch and the recall them I remembered that tracer would have been like, 6, at the time of the first Watch if it that were true... oops lol

As soon as they land at the base - Gabriel notes it’s the same one that he’d hit in an attempt to wipe out Athena; not the smartest move, but there’s few places that a group like Overwatch could go - Angela whisks Jesse away to the medical wing, Jesse complaining the whole way. Gabriel can’t help the fond smile, even though it earns him a dirty look from Jack. Jack’s been giving him dirty looks the whole way over here, though, so Gabriel just ignores it. Instead, he follows Winston, Ana, and Reinhardt through the base to the interrogation room. 

”Been a long time since I’ve been in this room,” he observes as he settles into the chair he’d thrown so many suspects and criminals into. “Never been in this chair, though.”

”You put yourself there,” Jack snaps. 

”No shit,” Gabriel interjects, grinning. “I literally just sat down in it.”

Jack’s neck flushes red, and if the visor wasn’t in the way, Gabriel gets the feeling there’d be some metaphorical daggers heading his way. It doesn’t stop the grin from spreading until Ana intervenes. “We’re here for a reason,” she reminds them all. “Let’s get down to business.”

Gabriel attempts to settle himself more comfortably in the chair that had been explicitly chosen for its uncomfortableness. “What do you want to know?”

* * *

The interrogation - because that’s what it is, for all that Gabriel is cooperating as best he can - takes hours. When it’s over, Reinhardt and Jack escort him to a holding cell, where they remove the handcuffs. When Gabriel looks at them with a raised eyebrow, Reinhardt gestures to the walls of the cell. “Winston has kept himself quite busy proofing the base against another attack from you,” he rumbles. “You cannot turn to smoke anywhere on base.”

Gabriel nods, flexing his wrists before inspecting the cell. “Fair enough.”

Neither Reinhardt nor Jack linger, leaving Gabriel alone after a couple minutes’ observation. Gabriel occupies himself by first attempting to turn to smoke - he can turn his fingers into smoke, and his nose, but that’s not going to be useful for anything, so he quickly gives it up. Then he amuses himself by comparing the cell to one of Talon’s, and muttering just loud enough for the microphones and cameras he knows are in this cell to pick up on. He mutters about how the cell has deteriorated, how - if he were trying to escape - he would break out, and he wouldn’t even need his abilities. 

After about an hour of that, he hears footsteps in the hall. They’re too light to be Reinhardt, too metallic to be Jack, so Gabriel’s standing curiously by the door when a metal ninja comes around the corner and into view. “Well, I’ll be damned. You got some upgrades.”

”So did you,” Genji observes. “And you are making Winston very angry with your muttering. I think Morrison might have an aneurysm if you don’t stop talking.”

Gabriel grins. “Hey, not my fault they haven’t kept this up to standards,” he laughs. 

Genji shakes his head, but the relaxed posture suggests he might very well be smiling behind that mask. “I hear you’re to thank for getting Jesse back. Never would have thought that Reaper would have a soft spot after all this time.”

Gabriel grimaces. “Well, that was kind of the point. I had a reputation to maintain, and a job to do.”

”Yes, taking Talon down from the inside, I hear,” Genji says dryly. “And it’s taken you five years to do it?”

Gabriel shrugs. “Talon’s been around a lot longer than anyone’s ever suspected,” he answers. “They were smart about how they took power, where, and who from. They built themselves up, layer by layer, lie by lie, promise by promise. It took almost a three years for them to trust the monster they’d created for anything other than killing.”

Genji straightens at that. “Talon gave you those powers?”

”Yes,” Gabriel says shortly. “You remember Moira?”

”Yes, but - _She_ was Talon?”

Gabriel nods, expression grim. “She was sent specifically to infiltrate Blackwatch. Talon had already gotten into most of Overwatch, but I kept Blackwatch under wraps well enough that they couldn’t get an agent in - until we needed our own medic. She started working on what she said would supplement what the Soldier program did - and she succeeded. It kept me alive through the blast, and Moira and several Talon agents were the first to find me. She finished her work.”

Genji swears, so violently it makes his voice come out staticky. “I knew there was a reason that Soba didn’t like her.”

Gabriel snorts. “I should’ve listened to that overgrown lizard.”

Genji just shakes his head. “So what now? I can’t imagine you’re planning on spending the rest of your days in that cell.”

”Well, I’d still like to take down some of those bastards personally. If Overwatch decides they can trust me, we’ll see.”

”It has been feeling like something’s been missing ever since Ana came back,” Genji muses. “But, you’ll have to stop freaking Winston out if you want to fight with us. He’s the one who gets final say on mission rosters.”

Gabriel sighs. “Fine, I’ll quit criticizing his security.”

* * *

Jesse’s ready to start climbing the walls if Angela pokes him with one more instrument.

”I’m _fine,_ he protests. “I didn’t get shot, I’ve just got some bumps and bruises.”

”You were a captive of _Talon,_ ” Angela reminds him, glaring. “You remember what they did to Amelie, don’t you?”

”I was only there a few hours,” Jesse argues. “And I was in a cell for all of that, until Gabe came and broke me out.”

Angela sighs. “I am your _doctor,_ ” she says, tone brooking no argument. “You will not leave this room until I am satisfied that you are fine.”

Jesse pouts. “What about visitors?” he wheedles. “You won’t let me have a cigar, but surely you won’t make me suffer through all the poking and prodding without _some_ distraction?”

Angela glares for another moment before she relents. “Fine. One visitor. But you must _stay seated_ while I work.”

Jesse beams. “Great! Athena, darlin’, could you ask Hanzo if he’s free?”

”Agent Shimada is outside the door already,” Athena informs him, a moment before the door slides open. 

Hanzo wastes no time walking to the chair set up next to Jesse’s bed and sitting down; he studies Jesse intently, gaze flicking over his face for a moment. “You are well?”

Jesse opens his mouth to answer, but Angela beats him to it. “As well as could be expected, considering where he is and what he’s been through,” she grumbles, approaching with a scanner. “Hold _still_ , Jesse.”

”I heard about Re- Reyes,” Hanzo says, clearly catching himself before saying Reyes’s other name. “Are you alright?”

Jesse laughs. “Oh, sure, I’m fine. Just found out my old boss, the man who was like a father to me after Deadlock, is the most wanted terrorist in the world. And apparently still thinks of me like a son, considering he killed three dozen Talon agents at least getting me out of that hole.”

Hanzo’s head tilts to the side. “He was the commander of Blackwatch; I remember Genji talking about him. He was a good man, Genji said.”

”A hard man, but yeah,” Jesse answers, then yelps when Angela pokes a bruise. “Hey, watch it!”

”And you believed him dead for years,” Hanzo prompts.

”We all did. No reason to believe otherwise, other than no body found. But he was so damn close to the blast…”

”It would be logical for there to be no body to recover,” Hanzo surmises. “And yet, here he is.”

”Yeah,” Jesse says, frowning. “Here he is. Truth be told, I don’t think anyone really knows how to feel about that, even Winston.”

Hanzo nods, and the two of them lapse into silence as Angela finishes her exam. “Well, you do seem to be a little worse for wear,” she announces. “But not enough for me to ask you to stay here. Just, take it easy for the next day or two, alright? And if anything starts hurting, come see me immediately.”

Jesse gives Angela a winning smile. “Of course I will.”

It earns him a snort. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” she retorts. “Now go on, I know you’re dying for one of those damned cigars of yours.”

* * *

Jesse gets his cigar while he’s debriefing with Winston and Jack. Neither of them say anything as he recounts what happened from the time he was captured to when they met up in the clearing; it’s only when he’s finished talking that Winston leans forward and asks, “In your opinion, is this man really Gabriel Reyes?”

Jesse takes the time to think that over. “Yes,” he says eventually, nodding. “Somehow, that’s Gabe. Don’t know how he survived, but I’d bet anything it has to do with the fact that Talon was everywhere in Overwatch by the time HQ went up in flames.”

”We already got that explanation out of him,” Jack says. “Moira was already Talon when she was assigned to Blackwatch. When I brought her talents to Reyes's attention.”

Jesse curses. “Well, damn. I knew there was a reason I never really liked her all that much. She started fucking with his body while she was our doc, didn’t she?”

Jack nods. “Reyes said that he threw away what he claimed was half a decade of planning to take Talon down from the inside just because he saw you in that cell. Do you believe him?”

Jesse looks Jack dead in the eye, even through the visor, as he answers. “You remember how he fought you about Retribution? He had that same look in his eyes when he told me to get my ass moving out of that cell.”

Jack snorts. “He never could let anything go,” he says, almost to himself. “But we can’t trust him; he’s spent the past few years terrorising just about every country on the planet.”

”With all due respect, Morrison, I think he deserves a chance to prove himself,” Jesse says. “We’ve let Vishkar and former yakuza in here; they got their chance to prove they could work with our teams. Verify whatever information Gabe gave you, but if he ain’t causing trouble in the meantime, then let him join us in practice. Range is proofed against him, too, ain’t it, Winston?” When Winston nods, Jesse gestures. “Then he can’t escape unless he wants to shoot his way out of the whole damn base. There’s twenty of us, and only one of him, and that’s not even taking into account what Athena can do, and whatever measures you’ve put in this base without telling us about.” Winston splutters, but Jesse just laughs. “You’d be insane not to keep some security measures secret for security’s sake,” he says. “So. Let him prove himself.”

Morrison’s gaze doesn’t move from Jesse’s face for several long moments. Jesse doesn't back down, but he does his best not to be defiant about it, the way he would've been when he was still Blackwatch. Eventually, Jack nods, just once. “We’ll take that under advisement.”


End file.
